AuthorTopic: Dean Marines S.M.S Komet (Read 18610 times)

Roadrunner

Normally i wouldn't post a build blog of this magnitude but seeing how this kit is so rare to come across i though it only fair to share this build with everyone.

I have been asked by a good club friend to build this boat knowing little about it, and have spent most of the day goggling info, with little success.The only real information i have about this boat is what has been supplied via the website.So here are the details of the boat herself.

S.Y. KOMET was constructed at Bremer Vulcan a.g. Vegesack 543 and launched on the 6-4-1911. (however the kit is named S.M.S Komet)

She was designed and built as a governor's yacht for Deutsche Neu Gunea (German New Guinea).

Komet was built of steel up to the boat deck, the wheelhouse was of Mahogany or steel and panelled in the same, Her GRT was 977 tons.Her power was from twin steam boilers powering twin triple expansion engines to two screws with a H.P of 1400 giving a top speed of 13 knots. She carried a crew of 160 and was lightly armed with one 37 mm rapid fire cannon and one 8mm machine gun both on pedestal mountings. She was stationed in New Guinea as the German Governors yacht until 11-10-14. When she was taken as a war prize by the Australian navy and taken into service as a packet / patrol boat. She was armed with three 4” guns on pedestal mountings at that time.She was then renamed H.M.A.S. UNA (one of a kind). After the war she was sold into service as the Pilot boat for the Port Phillip pilot service and renamed AKUNA. She was commissioned in to the R.A.N. as an examination vessel for Port Phillip. In 1943 she was retained until late in WW11.She was still used as a standby vessel until 1954. She gave long service at this position with a legend for rolling on wet grass. The AKUNA was finally broken up in Melbourne in 1955.

When finished she should look like this...

I would like to request some help with information/ photographs of this vessel if any are out there to aid with the build of this ship.

There is no real time deadline on the build, i have a feeling 6 months should be more then adequate to finish it however with any build time is subject to change depending on what crops up, and at present i have 4 other builds to contend with my 1:32 tug (which is has been ongoing for past 6 months now) the newly acquired motor boat from ebay, Graupner's Wiesel & another club members seaport tug conversion, think this lot should keep me busy for the next 2 years

I have collected the kit this evening and must say its very impressive in parts, the model i was told is one of the first to come of the mold there is clearly some age there but i have checked over the GRP hull it is of quite a good quality, with only a few section that will need some work to tidy it up, but it is only a single layer of matting over the gel coat so i think some reinforcement with bulkheads will defiantly be needed, the model is totally upstarted, many many fittings /etched brass parts the attention to detail is incredible.

I will post some photos tomorrow evening when i get all the parts out and so you guys can see what you get for £550!

RR

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brianB6

Contact Adrian at:-FLOAT A BOAT, 48c Wantirna Road, Ringwood, VIC, Australia 3134Phone: 03 9879 2227Fax: 03 9720 4526Email: info@floataboat.com.auwebsite: www.floataboat.com.au which has a downloadable plans catalogue.He has produced 3 drawings of Akuna 1 and may well have further information.As usual no commercial connection other than having very good service from them.

Roadrunner

Couldn't wait to do the photo's tomorrow so did them now while i had a few 5 Min's.

The Kit contains a lot of parts hence the big "bottom" box!

Next up is the GRP hull, its 1150mm from transom to bow.

Now we have the fittings, etched brass parts including the running gear, prop shafts, props etc a lot of parts, over 300 alone on the etched brass and a further 200 or so in cast metal.

We also have printed decks for both levels (one deck sits on top of the gpr superstructure)

GRP cast Superstructure & vac formed funnels, along with many other vac formed parts, life boats etc also the printed planking for the wheel house, there are also a few sheets of printed styrene sheets for the remains of the superstructure.

Finally the motors as part of the running gear, two very nice geared motors.

Roadrunner

I have also uploaded some photo's i have of her when she was renamed H.M.A.S. UNA, funny enough there's more photo's of her as UNA then as either Komet or AKUNA.

These are all the photo's i have so anymore people can locate would be appreciated, many thanks to Brian also i have sent an email just have to wait for a response of further information he may be able to provide.

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brianB6

I will follow your construction with great interest, since as Akuna, she was a local icon, although much before my time in Melbourne.One of our club members is building Akuna II and the number is just up to 4, but what a difference.See the thread on FCB2 replacement for the Mersey class lifeboat.

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Roadrunner

Thanks for your kind comments and encouragement Brian, this type of model is not normally my style, i tend to stick to tug boats, rag & stick, this one is going to be a bit of a chalenge for me, test all those skills i claim to have my only regret at the end of this is that she will have to be returned to her owner, but i'll be sure to be there for the maiden voyage.

To be honest i have never felt so pumped up to do a model like this, i think im going to enjoy the next 6 months, and i hope everyone else does too!

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Roadrunner

Well its started so no going back now! over the next few days i will be studying the instruction booklet & plan, the booklet is very extensive with over 60 pages of B&W printed text and photo's showing construction techniques.

Just to give the doubter out there that this kit i have is one of the first batch take a look at the front page of the instruction booklet.

A member of our group purchased this hull on its own and is far from impressed with the quality or the price he was expected to pay. As with all these kits it pays to measure thrice and cut once, even then I would leave an ample margin in case you have missed something.

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Roadrunner

Thanks guys looking forward to this one, it will take me a few weeks to prepare the research material i require to do an outstanding job, in the mean time i have a small project to do while i collect so this thread will be slow progress until end of April.

Thanks for the photo Liverbudgie another one to my collection, it all helps believe me!

As with your friend and his experience with his hull, its unfortunate in his case that its not up to usual standard, this kit is 9 years old but yet in excellent condition as im sure you will all see. Being one of the first runs of the mold its likely this kit was highly scrutinized on quality before being sent out, i have checked everything over throughly today and i have found only a few parts that will require a bit of extra work to bring it up to good quality but yet again, cast white metal parts are not always perfect!

As for the price im not sure if £550 was the original price as it is today but i can understand along with everyone else when parting with such an extensive wad of cash you expect top quality and not something half assed.

This would be my first dean's marine kit so i have no basis to compare any other work they produce, but from what i can tell even given this kits age, it is of a quality i would be prepared to part with £550 and be very pleased with what i have received.

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Roadrunner

Last few days have been quite interesting to say the least and to put it bluntly this kits causing me to work twice as hard to correct all the parts! Yup the parts are really that bad, all the resin cast parts will need a ton or work to get rid of the defects and air holes in the castings, and the same for the white metal parts (bangs head against the deck)

Anyhow.. lets get started.

First up im throwing the work instructions out of the window until i hit the superstructure, frankly its very vague and honestly i'm tired of deciphering typos, and not being able to match up parts to the written instructions ( bangs head against the deck Again!)

Honestly its not that hard to work out how to put this thing together without the written plan, just more of a pain in my butt!

Im sure you guys are getting the idea that this kits ...umm... not the best quality ever put out there, i can only hope that its been improved on since this once came out of the mould.

Ok enough yapping and moaning here's what i have done in the past week..

Starting at the stern of the boat at the moment, first up the easy task of drilling out the rudder post and fitting a 5mm brass tube for the rudder to work in.

Next up was to drill out the prop shaft holes, the A frame holes and the keel hole at the stern, the large hole in the stern was in filled with body filler to keep the boat water tight..

Now before anyone asks what was that hole for?, the answer is simple, the original props were quite large and the tips of the props used to slip gap instead of grinding up the hull, don't ask me why they didn't fit smaller props i have no idea!

I have also cleaned up the white metal A frames and glued in place along with fitting the prop shafts, which have not only been fitting in with P38 i have also glassed them as the hull is very flimsy and thin i doubt the hull would handle the the props and motors unless these sections were reinforced. I have also fitted a keel strip up the motor bulkhead.

Well that all I have done in the past few days, I'll update again soon once i get a bit further with the cleaning up of parts etc...

Roadrunner

No photo's today guys and gals, sorry, camera battery's are dead from the weekends sailing trip, but just an update on what work has been done since my last post,

Not a lot really... at this point in the build things slow down as many know due to the planning steps and construction of parts off the bench to continue with the build such as jigs and cleaning up parts, however the progress made has been vital, the battery tray and motor bulk head has been fitted into place using 4mm marine ply and currently the deck support beams are being held in place with 50 odd clamps while the glue dries! (photos tomorrow) the deck supports are becoming a long job as many parts been tapering to the hull shape to keep the deck flat to the edges of the hull so many dry fits before glueing commences and i still have the cross-members to construct and fit, the kit supplies a limited amount of strip wood for this part of construction and unfortunately the wood is not my usual material for such an important structural part, its 4mm balsa strip! Although the balsa will be strong enough once the deck is mounted in place with a hefty amount of wood glue, i would have preferred Obeche or ramin but it should do the job, if not i will have time to look at reinforcement before it becomes to late.

At the same time as the deck supports being constructed the Bowsprit has also been constructed and tapered on the lathe from 6mm at the base to 4.2 at the tip to take the white metal Rings, which are part of the rigging arrangement. With the bowsprit in place this model goes from 5 1/2 foot to 6' with little effort. The bowsprit i have yet to decide on the fixer for it, whether it be fixed or removable. As this is a commissioned build i expect i will permanently mounted into the hull and construct a storage box for the whole model for transportation allowing for the model to be removed from the box with out damaging it during normal use and transportation, obviously if a collision happens little that can be done but remove the part and replace, so i may look into mounting the bowsprit in a brass tube with a split pin lock for easy removal for such accidents.

My next jobs are to construct the mounting point for the geared motors and a electronics mounting board, and some ballast compartments. once all these parts are done, it becomes a simple job of cleaning up the hull for painting and starting construction on the superstructure.

deadbeat

The quality of your kit was the same for the two I built, HMS Nubian and Solebay. For the money I think the quality is appalling. I would not recommend a Deans kit to anyone without lengthy words of warning. Be hopeful though the kit does come out OK in the end (well Nubian is not a very good sea boat), but this is in spite of Deans not because of them!

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Roadrunner

I have to agree there i would be very hesitant to purchase a kit from dean's marines with my own cash given the state of the parts so far, you will see vastly more when i get to the fittings and fixtures later on. I am not fond of white metal fittings as it is but of all the kits i have done over the years these fittings are diabolical compared to others. My Tug build comes with over 200 white metal parts and its literally a case of sanding down the mould lines and the parts are good to go, these however need the air holes filled a lot of the detail is being obscured with the poor moulding, i can foresee my engraving bits for the dremel being worn out by the end of this.

Don't get me wrong this boat will be a beautiful example of an early period ship but surely a kit shouldn't be this frustrating to construct, through lack of care for a better word.

I suppose the month of not building her when i was doing a seaport tug conversion put me in good stead for finding out information and more detailed photo's of her which although on the hull is relatively useless, come the superstructure it will be a great aid.

One part on the hull that has sparked my curiosity is the so called 'wash ports' along the side of the hull, at first look its not clear how these wash ports would have worked being so far down the hull, i was under the impression that there would have been a drainage system on the outside of the deck which channelled water from the deck and out of the hull with out it pouring over the sides, infact what i have found out is how heavily armed she was for a yacht, these so called wash ports were in-fact gun apertures for cannons of a type (I have yet to find out the exact type of gun's that were in place) she also supports front and rear deck guns of an unknown calibre. Im not sure if these guns were fitted later when she was known as the Akuna or she was fitted with this weaponry during construction due to her placement or if the Germans knew there was a war brewing 4 years later. i will have to look further into this before fitting the gunnery to make sure the model is accurate as the Komet rather then the Akuna.

If anyone knows any thing about her armaments i would be interested to hear from you, please feel free to post on the thread or pm me.

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Roadrunner

Today I have been finishing off the basic tapered bowsprit to a semi finished state ready for a painting, reason for that i have constructed the bowsprit so early on in the build is that as its is a detachable part for transportation I needed to created a sleeve to hold it in place which I cannot fit once the deck is down fully, oh and I was bored waiting for the glue to dry and didn't fancy doing the washing up this morning!

Well its gone something like this...

Take a 6mm dowel at 20cm length and tapered. The last 17.5 mm from 6mm diameter to 4.5 the 25mm that is not tapered is the part stuck in the hull in its sleeve.

Now after cleaning up the 2 white metal rings for the bowsprit I had to create 4 loops at the far end which will take the rigging, which is attached at 4 places one each side of the hull one up the mast and the bottom is attached bulkhead just under the bowsprit extension platform.

The loops were created out of 1mm brass rod a simple job of wrapping the brass around a 3mm tube and twisting of the end.

Then do the same to the other side to create a double loop with a 4mm flat in the centre, 2 of these are required to give me the 4 loops needed.

The two pieces of brass tube are to become the capping to hold the brass rings in place.

Now to put the parts together, I could have chosen to drill a set of holes in the bowsprit and looped the brass wire with out the need for my method but it leaves little adjustment later on. My method is simple, cut 2 grooves down the end of the mast at the smallest end.

Next slide the first of the brass rings into place, not glue yet as it will pull it forward to lock in the brass loops later...

Then down one grove slide the first set of loops to meet the brass ring,

Next slide the 2nd set of loops down the other groove,

Next add the capping ring on the tip and compress together and add a drop of super-glue.

I finally snipped the end off and filled it with some epoxy putty and sanded flat to finish off the tip, job done!

The bowsprit is fully detachable at this point just for the photo's it is in place to give you some idea of what it looks like.

A member of our model boat group here in N Z has built the kit but unfortunately he is holidaying in the U K for the next couple of months so I cant ask him for any tips. I do remember that he too was not very flattering about the quality of the fittings and he also found the model a little tender when sailing unless it was ballasted down to below the usual waterline. He also found some of the superstructure, mast etc was easily damaged. Never the less it is a lovely looking subject and it would be great to see one ballasted with a nice little steam plant! Cheers, Ian.

Roadrunner

No chance of a steam plant going in the model as its a commission piece he wants it electric driven so keeping to the plan so to speak.

Th stability of the model in the water will be one of those bath tests, i have serious doubts how she will sail with a bit of wind, so much sits above the water she will get blown over unless i can bring enough weight into her but yet i don't wish to to go below the true waterline I will be adding 2 stability fins along the hull I'm thinking about 24" long 1/2" depth out of the hull, should do the job of keeping her stable although this is not on the build plan its something extra to add to ensure she sails without to much list or roll, watch out for that in a few days time.

I've not done much this morning only drilled out the port holes then had to give up as the wife is working today so i have to pick the kids up from school so little time for building until tomorrow now, such is life eh!

Mind you its given me enough time today to search up the material i need for my Type 22 Frigate build project (building the HMS Cumberland in 1:96th 60" long, either as winter project or spring next year)

Instead of ruining the looks when out of the water with "Wings", at this point in time you could bond into the keel a couple of threaded bushes to attach an underslung counter balance for sailing. You could then use them for fastening the boat to a stand for land display.

Regards Ian.

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What I said is not what you think you heard.

Roadrunner

That's not a bad idea Ian, you know what they say 1lb of lead on the outside is worth 2lb on the inside! i will look into that method further, but the hull has the makings for the 'wing's in the gel coat which i can only assume the original has them? god knows really this kits a nightmare as it is so working out what it should and shouldn't have is ongoing research! if anything i may just build in some threaded collects for optional weight on the keel should sea trials not go as planned better at this point then once the hulls painted and finished!

When I wrote underslung, I really meant on spacer rods, not close bolted to the keel. By suspending the weight further below the keel line, you don't have to increase the weight, you're increasing the length of the rolling couple.

If the superstructure grp mouldings are heavy you might like to consider using them as patterns and replacing them with balsa structures faced with thin ply which would reduce topweight considerably. When I built by Deans SY Medea I replaced the styrene main deck with ply at half the weight with no loss of strength.

Colin

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Roadrunner

Nice point Colin but it ain't gonna happen, if i had to live with the model i would be more concerned but i don't so won't give myself extra headaches with re-building parts, the superstructure is not heavy its a single lay GRP 2 part cabin and a 1mm styrene ( needs cutting out) wheel house on the life boat deck, its going to be more of a 3.5 foot block section that will catch the wind I expect, i will most likely do a sea trial once the hull is to a finished, before painting state to see how she behaves and make changed to fix issues that crop up.

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Roadrunner

Well I haven't posted in a few days with my progress so i'm going to catch up now before I forget what i have done.

Well the first thing i have done after my last post was to finish the Bowsprit to a finished state, painted etc, only thing missing is a bit of rope work on the tip, but thats a final detail to add last during the finishing stages of the entire build.Bowsprit has been painted satin black, the rings and tip white, and sealed with a gloss coat.

To go with the bowsprit i came across a issue with reliability of attaching and detaching the bowsprit over time with the original white metal shackles that fit on the hulls sides and at the waterline. the parts are clearly not up to scratch and no where near strong enough to take a few years punishment so have perfected my skills in silver soldering and created 3 new ones from brass. They are over size but a good 2mm in hight from the base but i will be locating them from the inside of the hull and creating a fake plate for the external so they look correct, reason for locating them inside the hull is purely for strength, making these parts very robust.

Well using 6mm brass strips cut to 10mm lengths and Silver soldered them together, then taken a file and shaped them (remeber there over size but won't look over size once mounted inside the hull).

You can see by the photo's the original white metal part to the new brass shackles.

Rough cut

Finished outcome

Next job after that was the clean up the rudder, its had a coat of primer to show up and bits i have missed, there are still a few bits to clean up but its now vastly better then originally moulded, i have also created a brass skeg to hold the base of the rudder using 6mm brass strip.

My next job was the fit in a motor mounting plate and motor mounts, Plate is 4mm ply, and the motor mounts are 38mm tool clamps (which are ideal for 555 - 600 size motors)

I have also finished the deck support frame work and drilled out all 82 Port holes to 8mm ready to take the 10mm brass portholes.

Only thing left to fit inside the hull is the rudder servo support tray and the electrical components (esc's etc) tray. once they are in place i will seal the hull and paint the insides black, as this will stop light shining through the hull ( as its quite thin) which will allow the port holes to be illuminated throughout the boat.

Then move onto the deck work (gluing and sealing the gaps)

Keep watch I think all that will be one big post rather then a few smaller ones.

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Dave13

Hi RoadrunnerA nice looking build I'm building the Dean's HMS Dreadnought and was also not very impressed with the fittings also they had simplified the superstructure and it doesn't look right or match the drawing in the anatomy of the ship book So I'm building all the superstructure form scratch now Thanks Dave:)